‘A huge win’: Top Barbados court strikes down law criminalising gay sex

Decision follows similar 2022 rulings in Antigua and Saint Kitts and Nevis

File. Barbados pride parade 2020 (ECADE / YouTube)

A Barbados court on Monday struck down the laws that criminalise gay sex, becoming the third nation in the Caribbean to do so this year.

It’s a big win for activists who have fought long and hard against these laws in which the maximum sentence, albeit rarely imposed, has been life imprisonment.

The decision follows similar 2022 rulings in Antigua and Saint Kitts and Nevis and was announced by Barbados attorney general Dale Marshall on Tuesday.

In a statement, Mr Marshall said that Justice Michelle Weekes had issued the ruling on Monday, concluding that Sections 9 and 12 of the Sexual Offences Act were unconstitutional, Reuters reported.

“In short, (the ruling means) we can no longer prosecute persons under these two sections,” he said, adding that charges for offences relating to consensual gay sex could not now be maintained.

“This is a huge win for the community and for Barbados. This has been years of work and that work still continues,” Rene Holder-McLean Ramirez, who helped bring forward the claim, said in a statement.

“It’s gone from a certain ripple effect to a tidal wave in the Caribbean, which is what everyone involved set out to achieve,” Téa Braun, chief executive of the London-based Human Dignity Trust, a human rights organisation, told the Guardian.

Only six countries in the Americas now have similarly restrictive laws, including Guyana, Dominica, and Jamaica.

“We are very pleased with the result of this case, which is a result of years of advocacy efforts by the community organisations as well as the litigants,” Michael Rapley, a member of the non profit organisation Equals, was quoted as saying by Reuters.

“This is a step in the right direction for the protection of LGBTQ+ people in Barbados as we continue to ensure stigma-free access to services and positive inclusion in society.”

The court has not released a written judgment detailing its reasons but says it will release them in late January.

It wasn’t, however, immediately clear if the government planned to appeal the ruling.

Meanwhile, the Eastern Caribbean Alliance for Diversity and Equality (ECADE) urged other regional countries to follow Barbados and said that they applaud “this decision on behalf of all LGBTQ+ people in Barbados and across the Caribbean, whose privacy and security are no longer compromised by these outdated laws”.

The Jamaica Observer quoted Raven Gill, who is one of the claimants in this case, and who is also the founder of Butterfly Barbados [an organisation for LGBTQ+] as saying that “this is the continuation of visible, monumental, and transformative work to remove misleading ideas about the LGBTQ community in Barbados and across the Caribbean. As an activist who works at many intersections — women, LGBTQ, health, and social justice — working relentlessly towards total equality is my motivation”.